September 09, 2011

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Issue No. 230 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers a POP QUIZ…just when you were feeling pretty smug about knowing your way around the classic leadership and management books! According to Stephen Covey, 81 percent of all employees do not have clear, measurable goals. And this reminder: visit the eNews archives at my Buckets Blog. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Effectiveness Pop Quiz

Yikes! I quoted Stephen R. Covey in a webinar this week on “Goal Alignment” and then I looked at my bulging bookshelves. Of the 229 books I’ve reviewed so far, this Covey Classic was missing. Almost unforgivable…because this book should be on everyone’s Top-100 list.

So…let me add some guilt to your life. POP QUIZ! Take out a blank piece of paper—and don’t read beyond this paragraph. Now…write down Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

OK. How’d you do?

Sometimes the best coaching you can give to an emerging leader is to say, “Here. Read this book. Then let’s have lunch and talk about it.”

So even if you read it years ago, “7 Habits” should have a prominent location on your staff resource shelf—since it’s likely that half your team has never read this gem. Then, ensure that the seven habits have a prominent place in your organization’s culture.

Sometimes the brilliance of a book—or a concept—begins with brilliant labeling. Covey’s seven labels all start with a verb and succinctly describe the action step required. (No cutesy acronyms, no twenty dollar words, no trendy clichés.)

Here are the seven habits:Habit 1: Be ProactiveHabit 2: Begin with the End in MindHabit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win-WinHabit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be UnderstoodHabit 6: SynergizeHabit 7: Sharpen the Saw

On his website, Covey summarizes the seven habits. For Habit 6, he writes, “To put it simply, synergy means ‘two heads are better than one.’ Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results than they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty—you name it.

“When people begin to interact together genuinely, and they're open to each other's influence, they begin to gain new insight. The capability of inventing new approaches is increased exponentially because of differences.

“Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word—boring! Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.”

Habit 6 sounds pretty biblical to me!

My biggest take-away from his book continues to be the in-your-face reminder from his Time Management Matrix. How about you?To order this book from Amazon click on the graphic below for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®, by Stephen R. Covey.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:1) Pop Quiz! Write down the seven habits from Stephen Covey’s book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” (Suggested script for your staff meeting: “If you listed three habits or less, I have a Starbucks card for anyone who reads the book in the next three weeks—and shares an insight at a future staff meeting.)2) Today’s staff meeting agenda includes a diagram of Covey’s “Time Management Matrix.” Which quadrant are you investing most of your time in?

Golf, Glitter and Gimmicks - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in the Donor Bucket, Chapter 11, in Mastering the Management Buckets is that “the Bible doesn’t teach the golf, glitter and gimmicks approach to funding Kingdom projects. Paul simply tells Timothy to teach people to be ‘extravagantly generous’ (1 Timothy 6:18).”

For more on this, read King David’s temple convocation speech in 1 Chronicles 28 and 29, when he passed the baton and the blueprints to Solomon.

It’s as if David is saying, “Solomon, if your motive is your own glory or your own fun, or a charitable deduction for playing golf or bidding on that luxury vacation…don’t be deluded. God will not be mocked!”

God sees through every motive. CEO David had created an extraordinary plan, clearly given to him by God (note that!), and had coalesced people and resources so that Solomon could launch his building program. To see what happened next, read David’s encouraging words in 1 Chronicles 28:20-21.

For more resources on inspiring people to become extravagant givers, visit the Donor Bucket webpage.

And…speaking of “Sharpening the Saw”…how can we serve you this fall?WORKSHOPS AND WEBINARS: